ICU leader warns Pfizer corona vaccine won’t be a quick fix to Covid

The announcement made by Pfizer and BioNtech last week that their vaccine reports a 90 percent efficiency has been hailed as the light at the end of the dark tunnel that has been the Covid-19 pandemic. However, it is still too early to celebrate, according to the head of the Intensive Care Association, Diederik Gommers.

He warns that “we are not there yet,” explaining that, so far, Pfizer has produced about 50 million vaccines globally. He estimates that for the Netherlands, per month, 10,000 people will be able to get access to vaccine doses for the first few months. “Those are very small numbers,” Gommers adds.

Vaccines produced by other companies are on the way, and Pfizer would be able to ramp up their production, but all of that will take time. This reflects the position adopted by Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health, who announced on Friday that it is too soon to determine how long it will take to get everyone vaccinated.

Gommers also commented on the news announced by Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday that certain coronavirus rules will be relaxed. He emphasized that the Outbreak Management Team (OMT) had not been involved in making those decisions, as “the advice is still being written.”

Gommers cautions the government to be careful, as the “difficult winter period with cold viruses is yet to come.”